J. Russell Courson, Child Of Pioneers In Early Pompano

J. Russell Courson, born to Pompano Beach pioneers who came by boat down the Intracoastal Waterway in 1905 to farm, died Thursday while playing golf in Tamarac. He was 73.

Mr. Courson`s parents, Joseph E. and Mamie, who came from Blackshear, Ga., floated materials down the Intracoastal for their new home, said Mr. Courson`s wife, Marie.

The pioneers built their home near what is now Dixie Highway and Northwest Sixth Street, in a community of about one dozen families that later became Pompano.

When the younger Mr. Courson was 13, he milked cows and delivered fresh milk throughout the town for 10 cents a quart.

An avid athlete, Mr. Courson played football and baseball for Pompano High School, and baseball for a Delray semi-pro team.

``He played football in his bare feet before they had uniforms,`` Marie said.

When he got out of school, Mr. Courson worked for a while as a meat cutter at the old Ogden Brothers Grocery Store in Pompano Beach.

When he was 29, he became the growing city`s first paid firefighter. He and his wife and daughter moved into the fire station.

``They just pulled the alarm, and whoever would come would come (to volunteer),`` said his daughter, Carol Ann Mott.

Marie Courson said once when Mr. Courson was taking a bath, their daughter, then 3 years old, pulled the fire alarm, bringing dozens of people from around the town to fight the non-existent fire.

Mr. Courson left his job as a firefighter to work for Smoak Brothers Construction Co., named for another Pompano Beach pioneer family. He worked there until the Smoak brothers retired, at which time he became a handyman.

Mr. Courson was a member of First Baptist Church of Pompano Beach and a charter member of the Lions Club.

Mr. Courson is survived by his wife, Marie; a son, Russell Glen of Houston; a daughter, Carol Ann Mott of Pompano Beach; and two sisters, Alene Cochrin of Tampa and Edith Stokell of Gainesville.